I sighed. “Does real love cheat?”

Holly was quiet for a minute. “I honestly don’t know.”

“He wanted forever, but sometimes I wonder if I was enough to fit into his picture of a lifetime.”

Holly wiped a stray tear. “I should have told you. It’s just after everything that happened… I lost the baby the same day we lost him. I just… I wanted to forget it all, Alyssa. Can you understand that? I felt so horrible and I carried it everywhere with me. I just… I don’t know. In the end I was selfish and I was afraid of losing Aaron too.”

“Speaking of Aaron, does he know who it is now?”

Holly nodded. “I told him a few days ago. He was pissed, to say the least. He didn’t say anything. He just slammed the door to our apartment and didn’t come back until two a.m.”

“I’m sorry, Holly.”

She smiled sadly. “You shouldn’t be the one apologizing.”

Even though I knew she was there to apologize to me, I still felt like I did something wrong. I mean, was I so messed up that people had to hide the truth from me regardless of the cost to them?

“He was, or is a great group leader, but he’s an even better friend, Alyssa. Demetri found out and immediately begged me to tell you, I pleaded with him to keep the secret. Granted, as a group leader they do sign contracts about that kind thing, remember the gag order?”

A light went on in my head. Of course I remembered. At the time I thought it was to protect infamous Demetri. Weird how it ended up protecting Holly, and in the end, me.

“Will you ever be able to forgive me?” Holly began to cry, her shoulders shook with emotion.

“Holly…” I felt my own voice quiver. “It’s in the past.

What’s done is done. I’m still in shock, so it’s going to take a while to get over it, but honestly, by not forgiving you I just hurt myself and in the end, I hurt the guy I love.”

“Brady?”

I shook my head. “Demetri.”

“You should go talk to him,” she encouraged me.

“I was planning on it.”

“I’ll leave you to it.” She patted my hand and then pulled me into a hug. “Thanks Alyssa, for everything.”

I watched Holly leave. A new sense of calm washed over me.

Demetri kept something from me, but at the same time it wasn’t as if he could come out and tell me. He was the group leader after all. When I really thought about it, I was more embarrassed than hurt.

Sam knew the whole time and he never told me. That sucked. Not only did my friends all abandon me, but they knew what Brady was doing and did nothing to stop it or to protect me.

And then it hit me.

The only person who really had my best interest at heart was Demetri. And I threw something at his face.

I was clueless on what to say, but for some reason I felt like I was on the edge of discovering something really important. Maybe it was the exhaustion but I knew if I just saw Demetri it would make it better.

I wanted to surprise him with coffee. It was the least I could do after keeping him up half the night and assaulting him. I winced at the memory.

Throwing my purse into the car I quickly texted Nat and asked if Demetri was working today.

YUP & HE’S GRUMPY. WATCH OUT!

He usually took the afternoon shift. It was already noon. I quickly drove through town to the Safeway where our one and only Starbucks was located.

Sadly, I didn’t even know what he drank, but I guessed that for any recovering alcoholic or drug addict that it needed to be sweet. I mean, he ate taffy like it was going out of style.

I ordered two caramel macchiatos and hightailed it back to Seaside Taffy. The car squealed to a stop as I slammed on the brakes next to the building. His usual corner was empty. Confused, I strolled inside, coffees in hand.

“Um, is Demetri working today?” I asked the guy at the counter.

“Hey, you’re Alyssa!” He seemed proud that he knew my name. I thought it was more creepy than anything. “I’m Evan. I was at the party last…” His words died out as he coughed awkwardly and looked away.

“Right.” I tried to ignore the heat pooling in my cheeks. “I need to see Demetri. It’s really important.”

Evan shrugged. “The boss gave him the day off. Said something about Demetri scaring customers.”

Something was wrong. I don’t know how I knew it, but something didn’t feel right. The hair on the back of my arms stood on end. Shaking, I backed away and then tried to run out of the store. Once I reached my car I pulled out my phone and called Demetri.

It went straight to voicemail.

“Answer!” I called again.

Same thing.

Desperate, I dialed Nat’s number and waited for her to answer.

“What’s up?”

“Do you know where Demetri is?” I panted, unlocking my car and carefully setting the coffee in the cup holders so it wouldn’t spill.

“He’s not at work?” Nat asked, confused. “Wait let me ask Alec.”

Nat screamed for Alec. I heard muffled voices, and then Alec was on the phone. “Alyssa?”

“Yeah, I’m looking for Demetri.”

Alec cursed. “Well, there goes that surprise.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. He just went to Canon Beach to pick something up for you, said it would cheer you up or something. I don’t know. Anyway he left about fifteen minutes ago.”